Reliability and concurrent validity of light's retention scale

Light's Retention Scale was completed for 123 candidates to repeat the first grade. These same first-grade children were tested with a number of measures of maturity, including achievement tests, measures of intellectual functioning, visual-motor integration, self-concept, and physical maturity. Results indicated that Light's total score is not sufficiently reliable and has little concurrent validity for making retention decisions. The total score should never be used.     

Convergent and concurrent validity of two measures of phonological processing

The purposes of this study were to determine the degree to which two measures of phonological awareness/ability (Test of Phonological Awareness; Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing) correlate with each other and with a measure of reading (Letter‐Word Identification), and to determine which of the individual measures of phonological ability best predict early reading skill in kindergarten children. With one exception, all correlations among measures of phonological awareness/ability were significant. In addition, all correlations among the phonological awareness measures and the reading measure were significant. Multiple regression analyses revealed that the combination of all predictor variables accounted for approximately 51% of the variability in scores on the Woodcock Letter‐Word Identification subtest. The Phonological Awareness and the Rapid Naming composites of the CTOPP were the best predictors of performance on the measures of word identification. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Reliability and concurrent validity of the DUSO affectivity assessment device

Forms M and L of The DUSO Affectivity Assessment Device were administered to 23 first-grade children. Alternate form reliability was significant at the .02 level of confidence. Forty-five first-grade children were administered Form L of The DUSO AAD and one week later the California Test of Personality. Concurrent validity correlations were significant for the total group and for subgroups differentiated by sex.     

The concurrent validity of the career decision-making system cross-culturally

This paper compares the occupational codes on the Career Decision-Making System for people performing similar jobs in two countries. Codes for students in different college majors and vocational training programs are presented and are available for comparison with worker codes.     

Content,concurrent and construct validity of the leadership skills inventory

The Leadership Skills Inventory was designed to assist students at the upper‐elementary, secondary, and post‐secondary levels in analyzing the strength of their leadership skills. This study was a subsidiary analyses of the research of Edmunds & Yewchuk (1996) to examine the content, concurrent and construct validity of the LSI. The results of a critical semantic comparison indicate support for content validity. Concurrent validity was supported statistically significant positive correlations between the LSI and all other leadership indicators. Interestingly, all nine categories of the LSI had statistically significant positive correlations with each other. Factor analysis revealed that the LSI contained only one factor, not nine as the separate categories infer. This supports the construct validity of the LSI, but as having only one construct, not nine as the categories suggest. There appears to be merit in using the LSI as a leadership indicator. However, further research is needed to improve its psychometric qualities.     

A concurrent validity study of the Woodcock Word Comprehension Test

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between the Woodcock Word Comprehension Test and several measures of reading achievement and verbal intelligence. Subjects were 194 children who were tested in a University Reading Clinic. All were administered the Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests, the Slosson Oral Reading Test, an Informal Reading Inventory, the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children—Revised, the Slosson Intelligence Test, and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. Pearson product-moment correlations (r) were used to test the relationships. It appeared that the Woodcock Word Comprehension Test assesses reading ability more than general verbal ability.     

Reliability and concurrent validity of a measure of critical thinking skills in biology

The present study investigated the utility of 52 items, selected from a readily available item pool developed for instructional purposes, when the items are used to measure critical thinking abilities of biology students. The items yield scores that have reasonable internal consistency reliability. Furthermore, analyses involving ACT, Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal, and Group Embedded Figures Test scores also suggest that the critical thinking test items have good concurrent validity. Thus, the measure may be useful in both science instruction and future research regarding critical thinking phenomena.     

Risk acceptability and cost-effectiveness of protective measures against terrorist threats to built infrastructure considering multiple threat scenarios

Decisions are often needed about the need and/or extent of protective measures against explosive blast loads on built infrastructure. A decision support analysis considers fatality risks and cost-effectiveness of protective measures expressed in terms of expected cost spent on risk reduction per life saved for terrorist threats to infrastructure. The analysis is applicable to any item of infrastructure, but in this paper is applied to casualties arising from building facade glazing damage. Risks may be compared with risk acceptance criteria in the form of quantitative safety goals. The risk acceptability and cost-effectiveness of protective measures includes cost of the protective measures, attack probability,reduction in risk due to protective measures,probability of fatality conditional on successful terrorist attack and number of exposed individuals.     

The maintenance of matching behavior when contrast occurs in multiple concurrent concurrent schedules of reinforcement

Pigeons were trained on a multiple schedule of reinforcement in which each component was a concurrent schedule. The concurrent schedules were programmed by the changeover-key procedure. The primary purpose was to determine if the relative behavior allocated to two response alternatives is affected when absolute changes in these behaviors occur; i.e., to determine if matching is affected when positive behavioral contrast occurs. Results showed that (1) relative behavior in the unaltered component of the multiple schedule is not disrupted when positive contrast occurs in that component, (2) positive contrast occurred when the overall frequency of reinforcement in the reinforcement-correlated component(s) was high, but not when it was low, (3) changeover behavior was susceptible to positive contrast effects, and (4) changeover contrast and food-key contrast are independent phenomena.     

The concurrent validity of the Expressive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test for Mexican-American children

The Expressive One-Word, Picutre Vocabulary Test (EOWPVT) and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised (PPVT-R) were administered to 50 bilingual, Mexican-American children in grades 3-5. The students' relative performance on these two vocabulary tests, as well as their error patterns, was examied. The results revealed that the EOWPVT has adequate concurrent validity with the PPVT-R, and that on both tests the students' scores were almost two standard deviations below the normative mean. The outcome indicating that the expressive vocabulary score was higher than the receptive vocabulary score is explained in terms of differences of item content and in the composition of the norm samples for the two tests. Items that generated high error rates are identified to facilitate appropriate interpretation of the EOWPVT when used with Mexican-American children.     

The concurrent validity of the peabody individual achievement test relative to the KeyMath diagnostic arithmetic test among adolescents

To investigate the concurrent validity of the Peabody Individual Achievement Test and the KeyMath Diagnostic Arithmetic Test, both instruments were administered to 171 adolescents. Math scores on the Peabody Individual Achievement Test were correlated with all scores on the KeyMath Diagnostic Arithmetic Test. Partial correlation coefficients were computed according to age, sex, race, IQ, and total group. The presence of relatively high and positive partial correlations between the scores supported the concurrent validity of the instruments.     

Equivalence and concurrent validity of PPVT-R forms L and M for school-age children with special needs

The PPVT-R and the WISC-R were administered to 101 special needs students; 55 of the referrals were new and 46 were reevaluation. Concurrent validity within the moderate range (.53 to .67) was established; however, when form L and form M were correlated with the WISC-R, form L yielded consistently higher correlations than did form M. Level of performance as reflected by average performance on the PPVT-R and WISC-R was comparable. No significant difference between instruments was observed except, as anticipated, for the PPVT-R and the WISC-R Performance Scale. No sex differences were observed. Further research focusing on the equivalency of forms L and M and the PPVT-R is recommended, particularly since such equivalence or “lack of” may interact with age of student or nature of classifying condition.     

The Rosenberg Self-Esteem scale and Harter's Self-Perception profile for adolescents: a concurrent validity study

The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSE) is a widely used measure of global self-esteem. Although its psychometric properties have found considerable support, its relationship to a multidimensional scale of self-concept has yet to be investigated. The sample for this study consisted of 150 adolescents randomly drawn in equal numbers and equated by gender from grades 8 to 12. Along with the RSE, Harter's Self-Perception Profile for Adolescents was administered to assess the adolescents' self-concept in nine separate domains. Correlational and cross-validation multiple regression analyses found that the RSE total score and both its factor scores were strongly related to Global Self-Worth, supporting Rosenberg's conclusions that his scale is a measure of global self-esteem and that its two identified factors are essentially measuring one rather than two different constructs. Other findings include a gender difference, with females reporting significantly lower RSE scores, and modest correlational support for a grade level rise found in the literature.     

Preliminary construct and concurrent validity of the Preschool Self-regulation Assessment (PSRA) for field-based research

This study introduces a portable direct assessment of young children's self-regulation—the Preschool Self-Regulation Assessment (PSRA). The PSRA was designed to assess self-regulation in emotional, attentional, and behavioral domains by using a brief, structured battery of tasks in conjunction with a global report of children's behavior. Factor analyses from a pilot sample (N = 63) of Head Start children revealed two self-regulation factors reflecting children's performance on tasks of impulse control and tasks of compliance/executive control. Assessor report of children's behavior during the assessment was reduced into two additional factors reflecting children's global attention/impulse control and positive emotion. Moderate correlations between self-regulation factors and children's social competence, behavior problems, and early academic skills, provide preliminary evidence of the new measure's validity, and additional empirical evidence for bivariate relations between academic and self-regulatory competence.     

企业内部控制问题及对策浅探

内部控制是企业管理的重要内容,影响着企业的生存和发展。但许多企业还未意识到内部控制的重要性和必要性,尚未建立有效的内部控制。本文在收集、分析内部控制大量的研究资料基础上,结合自身的实习经历,分析了企业在内部控制上的问题,同时提出了一些对策。     

中小企业内部控制研究

中小企业组织结构简单、规章制度缺失、人才缺乏、内部控制管理水平低下。COSO(2006)关于小企业内部控制的正式指南中指出,小规模公司可以通过以下途径在符合成本效益原则的基础上实现有效的内部控制:(1)利用高层管理人员广泛而直接的控制;(2)建立有效的董事会;(3)针对有限的职责分派,建立弥补性机制;(4)利用其他人开发的信息技术;(5)加强对内部控制的监控,尤其关注内部控制的重大变化。我们可以结合我国实际借鉴COSO的小企业内部控制指南,强化中小企业内部控制。     

浅议如何提高企业内部控制与财务管理水平

内部控制是企业管理体系中非常重要的一部分,在很大程度上制约着企业财务管理水平的高低。当下,经过一番调整,各企业在这一问题上都作出了改善,但依然有许多缺陷值得留意。笔者结合实践经验,从多年的理论研究出发,深入探讨了影响企业内部控制的主要因素,并就这些因素提出了相关解决办法。     

论如何加强应收及应付账款的内部控制

应收应付账款是资产的资产和负债的重要组成部分,而企业的应收、应付账款管理作为财务管理的一部分,其管理成败直接关系到企业的内部控制效果,也严重影响了企业的资金循环过程,理应得到企业的重视。本文主要分析了在市场经济条件下的应收应付账款内部控制的内涵、存在的问题,并提出了相关的建议。     

Evaluating construct validity and internal consistency of early childhood individualized family service plans

This study presents evidence regarding the construct validity and internal consistency of the IFSP Rating Scale (McWilliam & Jung, 2001), which was designed to rate individualized family service plans (IFSPs) on 12 indicators of family centered practice. Here, the Rasch measurement model is employed to investigate the scale's functioning and fit for both person and item diagnostics of 120 IFSPs that were previously analyzed with a classical test theory approach. Analyses demonstrated scores on the IFSP Rating Scale fit the model well, though additional items could improve the scale's reliability. Implications for applying the Rasch model to improve special education research and practice are discussed.